82 FR 27738 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 115 (June 16, 2017)

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 115 (Friday, June 16, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 27738-27739]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-12536]


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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Upon Written Request, Copies Available From: Securities and Exchange 
Commission, Office of FOIA Services, 100 F Street NE., Washington, DC 
20549-2736

Extension:
    Rule 15c2-11; SEC File No. 270-196, OMB Control No. 3235-0202

    Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) (``PRA''), the Securities and 
Exchange Commission (``Commission'') has submitted to the Office of 
Management and Budget (``OMB'') a request for approval of extension of 
the previously approved collection of information provided for in Rule 
15c2-11, (17 CFR 240.15c2-11), under the Securities Exchange Act of 
1934 (15 U.S.C. 78a et seq.) (``Exchange Act'').
    Rule 15c2-11 under the Exchange Act regulates the initiation or 
resumption of quotations in a quotation medium by a broker-dealer for 
over-the-counter (``OTC'') securities. The Rule was designed primarily 
to prevent certain manipulative and fraudulent trading schemes that had 
arisen in connection with the distribution and trading of unregistered 
securities issued by shell

[[Page 27739]]

companies or other companies having outstanding but infrequently traded 
securities. Subject to certain exceptions, the Rule prohibits broker-
dealers from publishing a quotation for a security, or submitting a 
quotation for publication, in a quotation medium unless they have 
reviewed specified information concerning the security and the issuer.
    Based on information provided by Financial Industry Regulatory 
Authority, Inc. (``FINRA''), in the 2016 calendar year, FINRA received 
approximately 461 applications from broker-dealers to initiate or 
resume publication of quotes of covered OTC securities on the OTC 
Bulletin Board and/or OTC Link or other quotation mediums. We estimate 
that (i) 195 of the covered OTC securities were issued by reporting 
issuers, while the other 266 were issued by non-reporting issuers, and 
(ii) it will take a broker-dealer about 4 hours to review, record and 
retain the information pertaining to a reporting issuer, and about 8 
hours to review, record and retain the information pertaining to a non-
reporting issuer.
    We therefore estimate that broker-dealers who initiate or resume 
publication of quotations for covered OTC securities of reporting 
issuers will require 780 hours (195 x 4) to review, record and retain 
the information required by the Rule. We estimate that broker-dealers 
who initiate or resume publication of quotations for covered OTC 
securities of non-reporting issuers will require 2,128 hours (266 x 8) 
to review, record and retain the information required by the Rule. 
Thus, we estimate the total annual burden hours for broker-dealers to 
initiate or resume publication of quotations of covered OTC securities 
to be 2908 hours (780 + 2,128). The Commission believes that the 
compliance costs for these 2,908 hours would be borne by internal staff 
working at a rate of $57 per hour.\1\
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    \1\ $57 per hour figure for a General Clerk is from SIFMA's 
Office Salaries in the Securities Industry 2013, modified by 
Commission staff to account for an 1800-hourwork-year and inflation, 
and multiplied by 2.93 to account for bonuses, firm size, employee 
benefits and overhead.
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    Subject to certain exceptions, the Rule prohibits broker-dealers 
from publishing a quotation for a security, or submitting a quotation 
for publication, in a quotation medium unless they have reviewed 
specified information concerning the security and the issuer. The 
broker-dealer must also make the information reasonably available upon 
request to any person expressing an interest in a proposed transaction 
in the security with such broker or dealer. The collection of 
information that is submitted to FINRA for review and approval is 
currently not available to the public from FINRA.
    An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required 
to respond to, a collection of information under the PRA unless it 
displays a currently valid OMB control number.
    The public may view background documentation for this information 
collection at the following Web site, www.reginfo.gov. Comments should 
be directed to: (i) Desk Officer for the Securities and Exchange 
Commission, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of 
Management and Budget, Room 10102, New Executive Office Building, 
Washington, DC 20503, or by sending an email to: 
[email protected]; and (ii) Pamela Dyson, Director/Chief 
Information Officer, Securities and Exchange Commission, c/o Remi 
Pavlik-Simon, or by sending an email to: [email protected]. Comments 
must be submitted to OMB within 30 days of this notice.

    Dated: June 13, 2017.
Eduardo A. Aleman,
Assistant Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2017-12536 Filed 6-15-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 8011-01-P